This past Saturday we took a day trip with our four young children to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin in order to attend a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by Raymond Cardinal Burke.

St. Zélie Martin, the mother of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, lost three children as infants and one at the age of five. “Life is short, and full of misery,” she wrote later. “We'll see them again in Heaven.”

I want my children to grow up knowing that a life of sanctity is the only life worth pursuing, that we are not promised happiness in this life, and that we can have the joy of Christ’s love no matter what it going on in the world around us.

“Pray for priests, so that each and every one of them will repeatedly say yes to the call he has received, remain constant in preaching the Gospel message, and be faithful forever as the companion of our Lord Jesus Christ.” —Pope St. John Paul II

Susanna Spencer has a masters in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is a writer and the theological editor for Blessed is She and co-author of the children’s devotional book, Rise Up: Shining in Virtue. She is a homeschooling mother of four and lives with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Find her at her blog, Living With Lady Philosophy.

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